WinPCD v1.610 Discussion Thread

[dlr]

I'm starting this to have a thread for any questions or comments related to this release to make it easier to keep track of them. Except for any bug fixes that are reported there is no plan for changes in the near future. I still have ideas for WinPCD, but those will take quite some time to develop, if I undertake them. Those may go into a new program rather than complicate WinPCD further.

Dave

[dlr]

Something that I failed to note in the Help for the Polar Plot section. The graphs are not normalized. The outermost graph ring is set to 90db, so anything higher than that will plot outside. Most graphs show normalized response, but I decided that being able to see the movement in/out with sensitivity would be more useful. The relative polar response is then the same for any frequency, but the on-axis is not the absolute reference. You can see how the off-axis sensitivity changes with angle, but still easily see the lobing behavior.

dlr

[maynardg]

Good Morning. Having an issue with WinPCD install. If I unzip and install I get an error. If I install from the zipped file, the program cannot "see" the various frd, zma, and csp files I have been using. I was using WinPCD successfully yesterday. Today, it did not work, so I tried to reinstall.

No luck. This is the error found when trying to installed from the unzipped directory.

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows : 10.0.19045.0 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 4.0.30319.42000
System.Deployment.dll : 4.8.4270.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
clr.dll : 4.8.4515.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
dfdll.dll : 4.8.4270.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
dfshim.dll : 10.0.19041.30000 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

SOURCES
Deployment url : file:///C:/Users/Owner/Desktop/WinPCD_v1.611/WinPCD.application

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Activation of C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\WinPCD_v1.611\WinPCD.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ The referenced assembly is not installed on your system. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B3)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [12/4/2022 8:34:28 AM] : Activation of C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\WinPCD_v1.611\WinPCD.application has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [12/4/2022 8:34:37 AM] System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
- The referenced assembly is not installed on your system. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B3)
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.IStore.GetAssemblyInformation(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity, Guid& riid)
at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.Store.GetAssemblyManifest(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity)
at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetAssemblyManifestFromStore(DefinitionIdentity asmId)
at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetAssemblyManifestWithRetry(DefinitionIdentity asmId, TimeSpan retryInterval, Int32 maxRetryCount)
at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(DefinitionIdentity subId)
at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(SubscriptionState subState)
at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.CheckAndReferenceApplication(SubscriptionState subState, DefinitionAppId appId, Int64 transactionId)
at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)
at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl, Uri& deploymentUri)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.

[dlr]

This seems to be one of the occasional issues with the Windows ClickOnce installation. I reproduced a similar one on my PC. I had been doing tests with several installs and not uninstalling beforehand. There may be other ways it can occur. I think that the uninstall isn't always clean. The error I got was that there was already a version of it installed, despite not being in the Windows app list.

I _think_ that in your case it did the install that had a previous version of an assembly (dll file I believe) and didn't install the new one. However, the files in the install area are given random file numbers. So it may be that the new install looked for a folder that didn't exist due to the previous install. I'm winging it here a bit.

What fixed my problem now and for a very few others over the years was to delete the folder(s) in the folder below:

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0

This is called the ClickOnce cache. I found the some folders in it were locked due an app I had open (Fidelity) and had to delete around it, so-to-speak. There are a lot of supposedly "temporary" files there. I had to reinstall the Fidelity app last time I cleared it, but no others, so far. I think Fidelity uses it.

If you use the Windows File Explorer (3rd party ones won't work) you can hover over any of those 2.0 folders and it will display a popup with the app name stored in the folder. If you don't want to delete the whole 2.0 folder, you can delete one-by-one this way, but there are a number of folders tied to WinPCD. Skip deleting any that you use, the name popped up should make it clear what it is. I have only once ever had to reinstall afterwards, that was the Fidelity app.

Visual Studio community online says that the new folders are so that new version can be uninstalled and the previous version used, but I'm not sure that it works properly that way unless something is built into the install itself. Installing a new version is supposed to be clean due to new install manifest data such as new version number. But on failure of uninstall/reinstall the same version of one or more dll's may occur. Some of this is speculation as to why, the failure error info never seems to be sufficient to know precisely why it occurred.

It also is the case that you can't just directly run the app from an install folder without running the setup file. Due to dependencies in .NET, it still looks for resources that have to be found.

Long story short, try deleting the folders in the 2.0 directory. Let me know here what you do and how it goes.

Dave

[maynardg]

Thank you for your detailed response. I have again attempted to extract and install. This is the error.

Maynard

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows : 10.0.19045.0 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 4.0.30319.42000
System.Deployment.dll : 4.8.4270.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
clr.dll : 4.8.4515.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
dfdll.dll : 4.8.4270.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
dfshim.dll : 10.0.19041.30000 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

SOURCES
Deployment url : file:///C:/Users/Owner/Desktop/WinPCD_v1.611/WinPCD.application

ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Activation of C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\WinPCD_v1.611\WinPCD.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ The referenced assembly is not installed on your system. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B3)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [12/6/2022 3:13:04 PM] : Activation of C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\WinPCD_v1.611\WinPCD.application has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [12/6/2022 3:13:13 PM] System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
- The referenced assembly is not installed on your system. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B3)
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.IStore.GetAssemblyInformation(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity, Guid& riid)
at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.Store.GetAssemblyManifest(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity)
at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetAssemblyManifestFromStore(DefinitionIdentity asmId)
at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetAssemblyManifestWithRetry(DefinitionIdentity asmId, TimeSpan retryInterval, Int32 maxRetryCount)
at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(DefinitionIdentity subId)
at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(SubscriptionState subState)
at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.CheckAndReferenceApplication(SubscriptionState subState, DefinitionAppId appId, Int64 transactionId)
at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)
at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl, Uri& deploymentUri)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available.

[dlr]

I'm researching this some more. Found the issue going back to 2006 for various reasons. Some exactly as yours, worked fine for some time, then one day won't run with that same error message number. If I understand the error report it relates to System.Runtime.InteropServices.COM, why I don't yet know. Same solutions tried, one case as yours, no luck on the cache delete.

I'll keep looking, but not easy to track down. Has to be something related to the ClickOnce install, built in by VisualStudio.

Does it show up in the Windows App listing now? With uninstall option?

Dave

[maynardg]

It does not show up in the app listing,

[dlr]

Looks like the uninstall shows up as a right-click option in the Start menu. WinPCD installs in the User area, is in the Start menu under SpeakerDesign folder as will my other programs, WinGraph, etc. Try selecting the uninstall option from there to see if it clears it. After deleting the folder in the ClickOnce (Apps\2.0) folder, it may not be able run it, but I have seen with other software that Windows will say it can't uninstall, but ask if you want it cleared from the system. That may clear it from the registration in Windows to allow a clean new install. Check that out and let me know the result.

Dave

[dlr]

Another idea occurred to me. The way the ClickOnce works, it installs based on program version. If you installed, but then couldn't run WinPCD v1.610, try v1.611 (install bugfix only) or vice-versa.

Dave

[dlr]

FYI, I've been working on another change. Runs fine through Visual Studio, but the new version will not run at all on installation of a published version. Found many cases of similar problems over the years with Windows 10 and apps via Google. Has to do with the kernelbase.dll file evidently. I've been working on this since yesterday mid-day. No solution yet. Has to do with Windows 10, not the app as far as I can learn so far.

Dave

[dlr]

Another update. My problem had to do with an error on my part in the code, resolved now. So we're back to not knowing the source or your problem, Maynard.

I have learned a lot more about the ClickOnce install impact. The version is installed in the User area. If you install with a previous version still installed, the new one is added and is run when invoked. If you do an uninstall at that point, the new one is removed and the old version is still available. I've tested that on another PC and it works that way. If you have to delete the Apps\2.0 folder, all older versions are gone. But there are times when that is needed, though not optimal.

Dave

[maynardg]

Thank you for your effforts. I’ve been travelling and will try again over the holidays.